solving all difficulty, which so many now-a-days are inclined to adopt.

But this is not all that it does. By establishing Christianity as a fact in the course of nature, as the one allenlightening, all-harmonizing fact, it baptizes and consecrates the whole philosophy of nature in the name of Christianity. Opposed to the mechanical system, which either renders the miracles incredible, or puts them aside as anomalies and exceptions, it demands the construction of a new, spiritual, Christian theory of nature, the life of Christ being the chief corner-stone. And the immeasurable universe is no longer a great workshop, crowded with machinery, but the house of prayer, the gate of heaven.

Turning now to Christianity as the point whence the full light of nature comes, we find, as I said at the outset, that it illuminates the whole condition of mankind. You can as easily confine the natural light of the sun within limits, as inclose within any boundaries the illumination of Christianity. It unites with all the other lights of nature to show us that all men of every age and clime are in communication with an all-ministering spirit of truth and goodness, free, universal as the light and wind of heaven, under all forms of religion, and at every stage in the history of man, brooding over the human soul, warming, quickening, and unfolding it into life. This same fact may be expressed in many different ways; but under all forms of speech, it remains one and the same, namely, that to every human being, by virtue of his being human, all the religion is possible which is necessary. This Christianity implies and takes for granted throughout. Christ addressed himself to an ignorant and narrow-minded people, inflamed by the coarsest imaginations, enslaved by the strongest prejudices, and yet he spoke of justice, and mercy, and purity of heart, as of things of which his hearers already had familiar apprehension. He appealed to good men and true, not doubting that there were such, and to whatsoever of truth and goodness existed in the most depraved. In all he saw some religious life. And he declared again and again, in various modes of speech, that he that doeth the will of God, so far as that will is known to him, possesses and improves, by natural consequence, the faculty of distinguishing truth and falsehood. And when we are enlightened by Christianity, when we are in sympathy with Christ, we instantly perceive, of a truth, that, as in

every nation men may fear God and work righteousness, so "in every nation every man who does fear God and work righteousness is accepted with him." By its letter and its spirit, Christianity brings us straight to this conclusion. To this conclusion, in so many words, the Apostle Peter came, and he was a Jew. From his birth, all things had combined to impress deeply upon him the religious belief, that his own people were the only people that God cared for, that all other nations were outcasts, dogs in the comparison, that it was unlawful for him even to eat with them. And yet he

came to see that God careth for all, for the whole family of man. It is true, he was very slow in coming to it; and after the direct personal intercourse he had had with Jesus of Nazareth, after all the lessons of love and charity to which he had listened, after all that he had seen of that life and death of love, after the ineffable sacredness which must have been poured like a halo round the idea of Christ by the awful fact of his resurrection, after the Apostle had been for some time engaged in the discharge of his apostolic office, he still, after all this, doubted whether it were right for him to eat with a man of another nation. But the truth rose upon him at last, and he beheld a gracious Providence watching over the whole world. That it was so long and slow in dawning upon him only shows what an Egyptian darkness of Jewish pride rested on his mind; while the fact that the truth did break upon him at last shows how mighty the spirit of Christianity is, and how pointedly it teaches, how strongly it breathes, the universal love of God.

But it may be asked, Why, if the full light of religious truth shines only in Christ, — if he first revealed the complete religion of Nature,-why was this revelation so long withheld? Why is it not now universal as the light of day? I reply, that, if Christianity be recognized as a fact, we must permit Providence, without questioning on our part, to fulfil its purposes at its own times and in its own ways. I cannot entertain any questions concerning the fitness of the time of Christ's appearance in the world. But if I were to ask any questions of this sort, I should wonder that Christ came so soon, rather than that he came so late. For here we are, well advanced into the nineteenth century of the Christian era, and around the cross, that symbol of the patient endurance and divine forgiveness of injuries, great nations, calling themselves Christian, stand armed to the teeth, and covered VOL. XLIII. - 4TH S. VOL. VIII. NO. I.

5

with human blood. For ages the simple Christian principle of human brotherhood has been proclaimed, and yet at this very hour this great Christian empire stands with blood-stained sword in hand, and with foot planted on the neck of the African, and invokes the sanctities of religion and law to vindicate the wrong. Why talk we of our Christian light?" He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now, and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes." I repeat, if we find any difficulty about the time of Christ's coming, we may well wonder why he came so early, not why he came so late, seeing that his religion is not yet understood, not yet received, not yet, properly speaking, given. But all wonder is out of place, except at the unutterable bounty of God. For since Christianity came in the course of nature and of Providence, as to raising any questions about its place in that course, we might as well ask why the fruit does not come before the blossom, or the blossom before the stem. Truth is given to men in as full measure and as fast as they are able to receive it. To those who have is given. And this principle, which Christ himself taught, is illustrated in the appearance of Christianity itself, which came as soon as there were only the fewest prepared to appreciate it, and the Christian religion is a fact and an era and a step in the natural progress and development of mankind.

All the confusion of thought that exists in relation to the limited diffusion of Christian light arises from the radical error of supposing that the culture of the understanding precedes the culture of the heart, that there must be religious knowledge before there can be religious life. Directly the reverse is the course of nature. And directly the reverse is most explicitly taught by Christ. The child's heart is touched by the beaming looks of maternal love before one ray has penetrated to his reason, and it is through the heart that the understanding is rendered active and becomes enlightened. If it is true that they who see God become pure in heart, it is first true that the pure in heart see God. The language of Christ is, not "if any man knows, he will do," but "if any man will do, he shall know." "He that doeth truth cometh to the light." Doing the truth is to come to the light. Through the inversion of this great evangelical principle, Christianity has been first and chiefly

regarded as an intellectual light, as a system of abstract truth, in a word, as a creed, written or unwritten, and not as a spirit of life, which it is, the breathing of God, quickening the life that is in man and so kindling light. And Christ is everywhere represented as if he came, not first to inspire the world with the love and life of righteousness, but to promulgate certain doctrines. Now I say that Christianity is not a form of worship, nor a form of words, nor a form of thought even, but a spirit and a life. Christ taught no doctrines, in the ordinary sense of the word. By a doctine is commonly understood something which is only to be believed, and in the belief of which there is a religious value, apart from all relation to life. With doctrines thus defined, with articles of mere faith, Christ had nothing whatever to do. The term doctrine, as it occurs in our common version of the New Testament, may be exchanged for "teaching" or "instruction" in all cases, I believe, without injury to the sense, and in some instances with advantage to it. It is true, Christ required men to have faith in him, but it was faith of such a sort that he said, "He that believeth in me believeth not in me, but in Him that sent me." faith in God, in right, which is the life of life. did not live to establish a creed, but he came and spoke words which were spirit. And brief as was his stay on earth, he told his friends that he must depart to give room for the true spirit, which was already in them, and which would lead them into the knowledge of all things.

It was Christ

Accepting Christianity in this character, we may see, that under all forms of language and religion, amidst the thickest clouds of barbarism and in the lowest depths of moral degradation, religious life, if not actual, is possible, that wherever a spirit of goodness breathes ever so faintly and fitfully, religion is there, nay, that there may be, that there is, "a soul of good in things evil." However confused may be the thoughts of the mind, the "law of the spirit of life" may be illustrated in the heart. In the vicinity of the city where I reside stands one of the most splendid edifices in the land, devoted to the protection and education of the orphan children of the State of Pennsylvania. This institution has been built by the fortune, and bears the name, of one whose long life was a steady course of rare commercial success. By his last will, devoting his immense wealth to the unprotected, he directed that there should be no relig

ious instruction given to the objects of his munificent charity. How a community professing Christianity and religion could accept the trust under such a condition, I have never been able clearly to see. But this by the way; I wish here merely to remark that the testator has evidently sought to exclude religion altogether from his college for orphans. And it would seem that he regarded religion as a morbid affection, a disease, and a disease so contagious withal that he orders in his will that no minister of religion, of any name or denomination, shall be permitted to set foot within the precincts of the institution. That he greatly erred, that he was all in the dark in his ideas of religion, I believe. But however vague and erroneous may have been the perceptions of his understanding, we see that he was animated by a great humane purpose; and that magnificent structure stands there, illustrating the very words of the New Testament where it saith that "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" is one of the first great offices of "pure and undefiled religion." We have reason to believe that Stephen Girard was inspired with the idea of being a father to the fatherless. To the realization of his idea he consecrated his wealth, and thus the life of religion, the spirit of Christianity, was manifested in him.

Christianity has been made the occasion of the bitterest exclusiveness, but wholly without reason; for if there is any one thing for which we should most especially prize it, it is, that, shedding upon us the full light of nature and of truth, it shows us all mankind included under one great religious denomination to which all other denominations are subordinate, as brethren of one family, members of one immortal household, whose head and whose Father is God.

ART. IV. -DR. PAYSON AND HIS WRITINGS.*

Ir is now within a few months of twenty years since Dr. Payson's death. One of the most distinguished ministers

* Memoir, Select Thoughts, and Sermons of the late Rev. Edward Payson, D. D., Pastor of the Second Church in Portland. Compiled by REV. ASA CUMMINGS, Editor of the Christian Mirror. Portland: Hyde, Lord, & Duren. 1846. 3 vols. 8vo. pp. 606, 608, 608.